No repeat of Iraq if Trump sends troops to Iran
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said Sunday that President Trump has not ruled out sending troops to Iran, but stressed that any deployment would be nothing like past U.S. wars.
Mr. Waltz said on “Fox News Sunday” that Mr. Trump was committed to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and that he would “never take options off the table.”
“This will not be a new Iraq of 2003,” the ambassador said. “There will not be hundreds of thousands of troops occupying urban areas anywhere, much less in Tehran. »
He added that the US military has “forces dedicated to managing [weapons of mass destruction] all over the world, should we seize it from a rogue nation or otherwise.
In recent days, Mr. Trump declared Iran “totally defeated” just two weeks after the start of the conflict. He posted on Truth Social that the Islamic Republic “wants a deal” – but that he would not accept – without giving details of the negotiations. His comments come as his administration pushes back against media coverage of the war’s progress.
Democrats disagree with his view.
“We were told we had a resounding victory, that it was all over. Well, no, it’s not over,” Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut said on “Fox News Sunday.” “There are still very evil officials in Tehran who could decide to build a nuclear weapon. »
“So that’s the key question: How does it end? » said Mr. Himes.
The president previously predicted that major combat operations could last “four to five weeks” or even longer. He has since said the conflict would continue “as long as necessary”, insisting that US attacks were “well ahead of schedule”.
Meanwhile, Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei – appointed after his father’s assassination – issued his first statement warning that attacks on US assets would continue unless bases housing US forces in the region were closed.
